Primary Research vs. Secondary Research: Which One Does Your Organization Actually Need?

Imagine you need to assess a market entry into Southeast Asia and have three weeks at your disposal, plus a rather limited budget. What do you do? Do you collect data yourself or buy an existing industry report, or maybe you do both? Let’s examine the research options you have.

• Primary research refers to the original information you collect yourself, right from the source. This information may include interviews, surveys, and observations.
• Secondary research encompasses already existing information. Thus, you analyze, summarize, or synthesize information or results of data analyses that have already been collected and arranged by someone else.

Most of the time, companies use both types of research, but knowing which one to start with and when to add the other is what separates a defensible investment thesis from a guess.

We created this guide to break down the difference between primary and secondary research, as well as when to use each and how professionals combine them under real deadlines.

Let’s examine each type of research and find out which one is more efficient, the comparative costs, and the timing.

What Is Primary Research?

Primary research is when you go right to the source to gather firsthand information, meaning that you choose to ask your own questions instead of relying on existing conclusions or summaries.

This is why such research is extremely valuable and costly.

The information is tailored to your particular question. Say both you and your competitor buy and read the same report prepared by a notorious market intelligence provider.

Basically, this means you both obtained the same information. But if you carry out an expert interview and collect valuable insights, these are much less likely to be obtained by your rival.

Common Methods of Primary Research (and examples)

1. Expert interviews and network calls (e.g., a private equity analyst reaches out to an expert network and books a 45-minute call with a former hospital-network CFO to sanity-check reimbursement assumptions before closing).

2. Customer and stakeholder surveys (e.g., a SaaS company carried out a survey of 300 churned users to learn more about whether it was the pricing or missing features that drove them away).

3. Focus groups (e.g., a Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG) company performs a test of four packaging concepts among several focus groups before it gives the printer the green light).

4. Direct observation and field research (e.g., a retail chain monitors its clients’ behavior and evaluates the way they move through its stores, hoping to spot checkout bottlenecks and thus learn how to redesign the layout).

5. Channel checks (e.g., a hedge fund interviews a manufacturer's regional distributor to estimate demand trends before an earnings report).

6. Win/loss interviews with recent buyers and prospects (e.g., a B2B sales team performs interviews with several prospects who decided to choose a competitor to figure out the exact factors that led to their purchasing decision).

Note that you can carry out primary research on your own (scheduling expert interviews or gathering focus groups) or contract a market research company or consultancy to do it for you.

What Is Secondary Research?

Secondary research means you are working with existing and “packaged” data. So, the information is there, but it’s just not always presented as the company or experts would want.

The information you are working with is the one previously gathered by another party and can be found in research papers, academic journals, government publications, articles, surveys, market reports, and databases.

It may be fast and somewhat cheaper than primary research, but since you did not gather it, the data may serve a different purpose than the one you need.

Common Sources of Secondary Research (and examples)

1. Industry reports (e.g., a strategy consultant uses a forecast from Gartner to estimate the target market for a client's new product line).

2. Government data (e.g., prior to opening a new distribution center, a company uses wage data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics to estimate labor costs).

3. Academic studies and credible white papers (e.g., a company reviews research from universities and trusted organizations, such as the OECD or the World Bank, to understand how a proposed regulation could affect its business).

4. News and trade publications (e.g., an analyst follows industry news websites and trade magazines to spot early signs that companies in a specialized market are planning to merge).

5. Company filings, annual reports, and press releases (e.g., an investor reviews a company's annual report to understand its debt and financial obligations before deciding to make an investment offer).

6. Competitor websites and product documentation (e.g., a product manager reviews a rival's changelog to see how quickly the competitor is releasing new features).

7. Trade associations and industry organizations (e.g., a manufacturer reviews an industry association's latest survey to compare its hiring plans with those of other companies before deciding how many employees to recruit).

Primary vs. Secondary Research: Key Differences At A Glance

When to Choose Primary Research

Primary research is extremely valuable when secondary sources do not have the information you need. That being said, here are the cases when you might consider conducting primary research:

1. You require the latest information out there. For instance, consumer preferences, market shifts, trends - all of these may change so fast that data from reports and statistics is simply outdated.
2. You want to have full control and exclusivity of the information you collect. You are free to determine the target audience, the type of research you want to carry out, the type of questions, and many other parameters that can help you meet your objectives.
3. You want to test a certain theory or validate a concept. With surveys, interviews, experiments, and other primary research methods you can confirm whether your assumptions hold true in the real world.
4. Your research fills an information gap. If there is little or no reliable information regarding your topic, collecting original data is the best way to produce valuable insights.
5. You need data from a concrete audience or market. Sometimes, the research available momentarily may not target the clients, sectors, geographies, or decision-makers that are important to your study. In this scenario, you conduct your own Primary research.

One of the most cost-effective forms of primary research is the expert call via expert networks, which is a structured 30-60 minute conversation with a vetted industry practitioner who has up-to-date and niche information on the topic you're currently investigating.

When to Choose Secondary Research

Secondary research may work best in the following situations:

• 1. You need to map a new market. Before spending time and budget on primary research, you may consider evaluating existing reports to learn more about the space you want to enter. It may prevent you from asking the wrong questions later.
• 2. You need to benchmark against industry averages. Some reports may already have publicly available information like market share, growth rates, and other numbers, which means that you don't need to produce them from scratch.
• 3. Time-sensitive decisions where speed beats depth. You may consider secondary research if you need information in, say, 48 hours. In such a short amount of time, already existing reports will serve you better than research you just don't have the time to carry out.

• 4. The industry you analyze already has a lot of reliable publicly available information. For example, pharmaceutical companies publish clinical trial results, so in this case secondary research can provide answers to many questions
• 5. You have some data but need more context or evidence to support it. You can use secondary sources to fill gaps in the findings you already have or double-check a conclusion before you present it, which usually turns out to be cheaper than performing an entirely new study.

The Hybrid Approach - How Professionals Combine Primary and Secondary Research

It’s not uncommon for experienced research teams to combine primary and secondary research rather than relying on a single method. In this scenario, secondary research comes first.

1. Secondary research is done first so you can understand the market, learn the already available information, and maybe spot some gaps in the existing data.
2. Afterwards, primary research is employed to fill the spotted gaps, answer questions that arose during secondary research, and collect the most up-to-date insights unavailable in published sources.

When to Use a Hybrid Approach: A Real-world Example

Say a private equity firm is thinking about buying a healthcare IT company - a decision that requires both hard data and human insight, which means that a hybrid approach might work best.

Week 1: Secondary research (building the foundation)

The team starts by gathering existing information, including data from industry reports (such as one published by IBISWorld, for example), the target company's financial filings (if it's publicly listed), competitor press releases, and general market data.

The main goal is to understand the market landscape and spot the open questions that only people with firsthand experience can answer.

Week 2: Primary research (filling the gaps)

Having collected the right questions, the team moves forward to primary research, engaging with one or several expert networks on the ENC platform, and carrying out interviews with three or four former executives from similar companies.

Week 3: Synthesizing both types of research

The secondary research offers the necessary numbers and gives market context, while the primary research helps answer the "why" questions behind those numbers. In the end, the company gets insights that can help you make a very informed decision.

Cost and Time Considerations

The exact costs of each report type vary depending on various variables, such as the vendor, industry, geography, the level of complexity of the research, and project scope. But the ranges below reflect common estimates across the market research and investment research industries.

For expert network calls, clients may require anywhere from 10 to 40 calls or even more, but the most common is 5-10 calls. Each call can take an hour, and after collecting the information, the client performs a deeper analysis, having transcripts and/or recordings of the conversation at hand.

For more information, visit ExpertNetworkCalls.com - a platform that gathers 22 trusted expert networks, together offering connections to over 3 million subject matter experts.

Book a demo here

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

What is the main difference between primary and secondary research?

Primary research is when you gather original data directly from the source, through interviews or focus groups. Secondary research is when you analyze existing data (someone else already collected and published it), for example, reports or study results.

Primary research gives you exclusive and tailored information, but it comes at a cost. Secondary research is often (but not always) faster and cheaper, yet it may not give you the exact answers that you need.

What are examples of primary research?

Examples include customer interviews, expert network calls with industry professionals, online surveys, focus groups, direct field observation, channel checks with suppliers or distributors, and win/loss interviews with recent buyers and/or former prospects. The distinguishing feature of primary research is that the data did not exist before you gathered it.

What are examples of secondary research?

Examples include information collected from business journals, competitor websites, published research, industry reports from IBISWorld, Gartner, and other reputable organizations, government statistics from the Census Bureau or Bureau of Labor Statistics, trade publications, and public databases like PitchBook.

When should I use primary research instead of secondary research?

Use primary research, for example, when: 1) There’s no secondary data that can solve your issue or answer your questions. 2) Existing data is old or outdated. 3) You need information from people inside the market. 4) You want data your competitors don't have. 5) You need validation for a high-risk investing theory.

What is desk research in business?

“Desk research” is the same as “secondary research," meaning the analysis of already existing information without going into the field. It’s called “desk research” because it implies that the research can be done without leaving your desk.

If you have a research question that needs direct industry perspectives from practitioners who have lived through the exact market conditions you're studying, expert network calls are one of the most efficient primary research tools available for time-pressed teams. You can get in touch with one or several of the 22 expert networks on the platform.

Explore ENC's expert network services